Kamilah AlegehWrite about the ways in which Arundhati Roy tells the story in the first chapter of ‘The God of Small Thing.’ The God of Small Things takes different forms of drama. This novel could be seen as a family drama, a romantic drama, and also a literary fiction. From the first chapter, we already begin to see the story centred on a family’s background. We meet Baby Kochamma whose name was really Navomi Ipe and we learn that she is ‘Rahel’s baby grandaunt, her grandfather’s younger sister.’ A reader could blindly say that the book is a family drama because of the mentioning of a grandfather, a grandaunt and a niece (granddaughter). Furthermore, Estha who is Rahel’s twin brother is mentioned. ‘They were two-egg twins. Dizygotic doctors called them, born from separate but simultaneously fertilized eggs.’ The twins were very close to each other, almost as if they ‘were a rare breed of Siamese twins, physically separate but with joint identities.’ The story of the God of Small Things revolves around the Ipe family, Estha and Rahel’s family. Roy tells us the story of the Ipe family through flashbacks. ‘They were nearly born on a bus Estha and Rahel. The car in which Baba, their father, was taking Ammu, their mother, to the hospital in Shillong...’ With this event from one of the flashbacks, the parents of Estha and Rahel are introduced. There is also a flashback to the death and burial of their cousin, Sophie Mol. ‘She was visiting from England. Estha and Rahel were seven years old when she died. She was almost nine. She had a special child-sized coffin.’ This flashback introduces the reader to a major anti-climax of the story- the death of Sophie Mol and the events prior to that. We know it is a family drama also because of the way the Ipe family members react to the death of Sophie Mol. The novel also takes the form of a romantic drama. The novel could be interpreted as a love story on forbidden love. Forbidden love because in the story, there is love between different classes of people. There is love between Velutha, a man in the lowest class in the caste system (untouchables) and Ammu, a higher caste woman. Forbidden love because it breaks the ‘laws that lay down who should be loved, and how, and how much.’ The story has elements of romance in it. For instance, Ammu has just realised that she loved at night, the man her children loved by day. The novel also takes the form of a literary fiction because of how Roy cautiously unfolds the story to us. We go right into the minds of the characters, read and imagine their stories from their own point of view. Roy tells us the story through these forms and leaves us anticipating and asking questions. Questions like ‘how did Sophie Mol die?’, ‘were Velutha and Ammu the only ones that broke the love laws?’ and more. Through the course of the story, Roy leaves the readers to pick up answers to their various questions. The structure of the first chapter is very detailed. In most novels, first chapters set the scene, telling us about what we will encounter in the other subsequent chapters. The story is told in an episodic manner using a series of flashbacks. The story in the first chapter begins in the present time when Rahel returns to ‘the old house on the hill’ because her brother is back. From this flashback to the past, we are moved to the future as we are told that Ammu has died. ‘Thirty one. Not old. Not young. But a viable die-able age.’ From that point in the future, Roy takes us back to the past when Baba was taking Ammu to the hospital to give birth. From this point, we are more or less reading the story in a linear manner. We find out that the children are not happy that they were not born in a bus because they’ve lost the privileges of getting free bus rides and being buried with Government money. We learn about Sophie Mol’s death and her burial and of how Ammu, Estha and Rahel were allowed to go for the burial but ‘were made to stand...

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...Write about the waysRoytells the story in chapter one of ‘The God of SmallThings’.
‘The God of SmallThings’, Arundhati Roy’s debut novel is now considered to be a world renowned literary sensation, mainly due to the distorted manner in which the story is told. Roy utilises the subversion of genre, a playful approach to language (especially when Estha and Rahel are concerned) and a complex temporal structure to portray a poetic retelling of “smallthings” and their importance. To fully appreciate the importance of the primary chapter we must reflect upon it with the rest of the novel in mind due to the non-linear chronology of the narrative.
The setting of the novel is in an area surrounded by nature it contains aspects of books written in a pastoral form. However, Roy often subverts this ‘natural nirvana’ by surreptitiously implying that nature is s a ‘force to be reckoned with’ and doesn’t lionise it as other pastoral novelists would. In fact she goes as far as likening the rain to “silver ropes slam[ming] into loose earth, ploughing it up like gunfire”. The pastoral tendencies of the book is also contrasted against the harsh storyline much like ‘Of Mice And Men’ which subverts your...

...1.Question: Who—or what—is the God of SmallThings? What other names and what divine and earthly attributes are associated with this god? What—or who—are the SmallThings over which this god has dominion, and why do they merit their own god? Does Roy's God of SmallThings share attributes with any members of the Hindu pantheon?
Answer:Roy leads the readers to the smallthings in the big Indian society which is concerned with the caste system, political associations and social laws. Velutha is presented as the God of SmallThings in the novel. In the novel, he is also presented with the names like an Untouchable, Paravan, The God of Loss and The God of Goose Bumps and Sudden Smiles.
Velutha is the upholder of the world of sacred, untouchable secrets, whispers, overlooked pieces of reality, promises, sins, and other emotional creatures. These things are insignificant for other characters who seek for big significant things and are struggling for culturally significant ideals such as an honourable family and a noble political life. Though honourable family and noble political life is significant, it does not mean that the values for love and emotions can be considered...

...﻿GOD OF SMALLTHINGS ESSAY
–ARYAMIKA BHATIA
The passage chosen for analysis is situated after the description of Ammu’s dream about Velutha, in chapter 11. It sheds light on Ammu’s struggle to amalgamate her motherly affection with her strong-willed personality and Estha and Rahel’s bond with their mother.
‘The afternoon silence’, in the first line, depicts her monotonous, oppressed life while ‘the edges of light’ represents her desires and dreams, similar to the one she just had. Hence, ‘In the afternoon silence, (laced with edges of light)’ proves that her life was lackluster to such a great extent that glimpses of her dream world were the only source of hope she held onto. The sibilance in ‘silence’ amplifies the never ending, dreary effect. ‘Laced’ symbolizes the fragility and meagerness of her dreams or source of hope. The fact that ‘her children curled into the warmth of her’ during this time period and woke her up from her dream, portrays that they were the link between her dreary reality and desired fantasy.
The intimacy and motherly bond that Ammu possesses with her children is portrayed through Estha and Rahel’s actions, even though Ammu doesn’t reciprocate to them. ‘The smell of her’ buttresses the familiarity and ease that even the slightest aspect of Ammu gave them. ‘They sensed somehow that in her sleep she had travelled away from them’ is a powerful sentence that depicts the...

...1.Physical description of the character. How relevant is this for the novel?
First impression: “…how hugely pregnant Ammu was…”
* "Ammu had an elaborate Calcutta wedding. Later, looking back on the day, Ammu realized that the slightest feverish glitter in her bridegroom's eyes had not been love, or even excitement at the prospect of carnal bliss, but approximately eight large pegs of whiskey. Straight. Neat."
* Beautiful and sardonic woman
* Judged by society
* “Beautiful, young and cheeky”
* AMMU AND BABA MOVE TO ASSAM: “ She wore backless blouses with her saris and carried a silver lamé purse on a chain. She smoked long cigarretes in a silver cigarrette holder and learn to make perfect smoke rings”
* AMMU DIVORCEHOOD AND MOTHERHOOD, she is back in Ayemenem: “Even her walk changed from a safe mother-walk to another wilder sort of walk. She wore flowers in her hair and carried magic secrets in her eyes. She spoke to no one.”
Her own impression about herself “ When she looked at herself in her wedding photographs, Ammu felt the woman that looked back at her was someone else. A foolish jewelled bride. Her silk sunset-coloured sari shot with gold. Rings on every finger…” “Looking at herself like this, Ammu’s soft mouth would twist into a small, bitter smile at the memory, not of the wedding but to the fact that she had permmited herself to be so painstakingly decorated before being led to the gallows”
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The God of SmallThings CPT Essay
The God of SmallThings is a very fascinating book about twin brothers and sisters Rahel and Estha literally born within minutes of each other in Ayemenem within Kerala, India. From the very beginning moments of the story to the very end it is evident to see the concrete similarities that the twins have, and throughout the book it is evident to see that their identities begin to separate as to form identities that are completely different from each other. The book is told within various timeframes and between chapters will go back and forth between events, jumping from a tragic death of a loved one to going to a carnival the next; but one begins to realize the importance each event holds on the life of these kids. It is clear to see through the beginning of the book that there is a definite clash of identities and the longing for the separation of the two. "In those early amorphous years when memory had only just begun, when life was full of Beginnings and no Ends, and Everything was Forever, Esthappen and Rahel thought of themselves together as Me, and separately, individually, as We or Us. As though they were a rare breed of Siamese twins, physically separate, but with joint identities." (The God of the SmallThings 4)
From the beginning of the novel the tone is set for Estha...

...Found. In order to lose love, you must first obtain love. In order to find love, you must first know what love is. In order for love to be forbidden, it must first be permissible. These are the misconstrued thoughts of the characters in The God of SmallThings.
Figuratively speaking, there is a fight against the caste system in India as to whom the characters should love. This enables them to fight for love by breaking the archetypal tradition of what love should look like. All events lead up to the ultimate sacrifice, which is Velutha’s death; he has come to redeem those who are lost in a sea of uncertainty in relation to love. Although the caste system played a part in the brutal murder, Velutha’s death was relevant to the Forbidden Love Laws because it was his purpose to break all love barriers. ArundhatiRoy presents love on a silver platter, waiting for the readers to intake every ounce of what she has to offer; permitting them to consciously think about what love is and how easily it can be misapprehended. The recurring theme throughout the story is the archetype of love; whether it is conditional or unconditional versus an obligation or a natural force.
Ammu was directly exposed to the false meaning of love. Because her father was a “jealous man” (46), he would advertently beat her mother every night “with a...

...Bildungsroman
When one thinks of childhood, death and sadness are not usually the first words that come to mind. Bildungsroman is defined as a novel about the moral and psychological growth of the main character. It typically ends on a positive note, with the hero’s foolish mistakes and painful disappointments behind him and life of usefulness ahead (Wikipedia contributors). In this essay, I will argue that The God of SmallThings written by ArundhatiRoy is in fact an unsentimental bildungsroman that closely depicts the tragic lives of Rahel and Estha and gives the naïve readers who believe childhood consists of laughter and happiness a better understanding of the horrifying experiences that one’s childhood could entail.
To understand the significance of Estha and Rahel, the “two egg twins” in the novel, it is important to know their relationship is that of “one”. At the beginning of the story the author makes this very clear. “Esthappen and Rahel thought of themselves together as Me, and separately, individually, as We or Us. As though they were a rare breed of Siamese twins, physically separate, but with joint identities” (4). This statement not only indicates the inescapable linkage these characters have, but also introduces the theme of the novel. Even as adults, there was never a time when they were not communicating, although they were thousands of miles apart. The...

..."The Gods of SmallThings," written by ArundhatiRoy, tells the story about an Indian family, forbidden love, and horrors during the upbringing of twins Estha and Rahel. It is a sad but humorous story of a peculiar family in India, the West's intrusion, and the caste systems terrifying regime. The family we follow is a family that is pretty well off. They own asmall factory, Paradise Pickles and Preserves, where they have workers who are of lower caste.
The twins Estha and Rahel have always felt like they belonged together. Their inner is in some way linked as if they belonged to a rare species of Siamese twins, physically separate, but with coadunate identities. They have reached an age of 31, and after her divorce, Rahel returns to her family home in Ayemenem to visit the family and her twin brother. As a child Rahel would share experiences and memories with Esta unconsciously. She grew up in Ayemenem but, as an adult, she lived in the United States with her husband, Larry McCaslin.
One immediately becomes aware that something lurks beneath the surface. Both twins show traces of which can be attributed back to their childhood. They have both become lost souls. All her life, Rahel felt an almost magical proximity to her fraternal twin, her brother Estha. Life has however worn them apart and he has become very closed...

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